Director of Operational Excellence & Optimization

Position Summary

Ergon's Energy & Specialty Solutions (ESS) division is seeking a Director of Operational Excellence & Optimization to lead the business unit efforts that strengthen operational and business performance. Reporting to the Vice President – ESS Business Operations, this role integrates people, processes, systems, technology, and performance to improve safety, reliability, profitability, and organizational resilience.

The Director will lead cross-functional optimization, continuous improvement, innovation, and technology initiatives while building scalable capabilities that support Ergon's values of Respectful Relationships, Empowered Service, Purposeful Growth, and Selfless Leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and lead the ESS Operational Excellence strategy, standards, governance, priorities, and performance measures aligned with business objectives.

• Lead cross-functional optimization and continuous-improvement initiatives that improve safety, reliability, efficiency, profitability, and organizational effectiveness.

• Identify recurring operational and business performance issues and implement sustainable solutions using disciplined problem-solving, standardization, and organizational learning.

• Evaluate and advance technology, analytics, automation, and innovation opportunities based on business value, risk, scalability, and organizational readiness.

• Partner with Engineering, Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Asset Integrity, Safety, and other functions to embed Operational Excellence principles and lifecycle thinking into operating and capital-project decisions.

• Partner with Finance and business leaders to quantify opportunities, prioritize initiatives, establish performance measures, and validate realized business value.

• Build organizational capability by strengthening continuous-improvement practices, change leadership, knowledge sharing, and adoption of scalable solutions across ESS.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations Management, or a related field.

• 10 years of experience in operations, engineering, operational excellence, continuous improvement, business optimization, or a related industrial discipline.

• 5 years of experience leading cross-functional improvement, optimization, or transformation initiatives.

• Experience leading initiatives involving multiple operational or business functions from opportunity identification through implementation and performance measurement.

• Experience establishing and using operational or business performance metrics to identify opportunities and measure results.

• Experience presenting recommendations, performance results, and improvement priorities to senior business or operational leaders.

• Experience working within refining, petrochemical, chemical processing, energy, manufacturing, or a comparable industrial environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• 15 years of progressive experience in industrial operations, engineering, operational excellence, or business optimization.

• 7 years leading enterprise, multi-site, or business-unit-level continuous-improvement or optimization initiatives.

• Experience developing or implementing an Operational Excellence framework, governance model, or performance-management system.

• Experience implementing technology, analytics, automation, or digital solutions that produced measurable operational or business improvements.

• Experience developing business cases and partnering with Finance to quantify opportunities and validate realized financial or operational value.

• Experience leading organizational change or capability-building initiatives across multiple functions or operating locations.

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean certification, or comparable continuous-improvement certification.